MR: You have a new album called Fight The Frequency. But first, you were the drummer for Veruca Salt and also Letters To Cleo, right?

SJ: That's right, back in the 90s, indeed. You know, I'm a drummer by trade. So, I grew up playing drums, and I sort of got my start professionally playing drums. I was lucky enough to be in Letters To Cleo and Veruca Salt, and I got to play with Aimee Mann and Juliana Hatfield. I played with all the chick rockers in the '90s, basically. I guess, at a certain point, I thought I might give singing and playing the guitar a try, and that's how American Hi-Fi was born.

MR: Kind of worked, didn't it.

SJ: It did kind of work. I'm shocked, quite frankly. I was shocked back then, and I'm shocked now that we're going on ten years of being a band. It kind of seems ridiculous.

MR: Your music seems pretty youthful, such a natural for shows like Greek.

SJ: Yeah, we license stuff all the time. But with American Hi-Fi, I don't think we've been on any TV shows in a long time.

MR: No appearances on The Vampire Diaries?

SJ: We were never on that one either.

MR: Gossip Girl?

SJ: We're too old to be on those shows now, Mike, come on. They reserve that for like eighteen-year-old kids.

MR: The O.C.?

SJ: I think we just had some music on there.

MR: Let's talk about your song "Lost." It's my personal favorite, and it now has a video. Could you give us some background, like who the director was, the concept, all that?

SJ: Yeah, the video is directed by our good friend, Chris Applebaum. He directed "Flavor Of The Weak," "The Art Of Losing," and he directed "The Geeks Get The Girls." I've known Chris, actually, since back in the Letters To Cleo days. We've known each other for years and have been really good friends for a long time. For one, Chris makes us look decent, which is a challenge in and of itself. He always writes these treatments that are funny and cool and interesting, and he did another terrific job on the "Lost" video, I think.

MR: My favorite thing about the video is the girl who's spilling things on herself, then later, sitting in the kitchen stuffing herself with cake. Just what have you done to drive her to this, young man?

SJ: Hey, that wasn't me. I had nothing to do with it. I relate to her, I'm on her side.

MR: Uh-huh. You've got a really good sense of pop songwriting -- who are your influences?

SJ: Well, I grew up listening to pop rock music. My parents were really into The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and they had Fleetwood Mac albums and The Eagles. You know, the first concert I ever saw was ABBA in '79. I went to Wembley Arena with my parents and saw ABBA there. So, I grew up on popular music, and that's always been my love. I like a melody, some big guitars, and call it a day, you're good.

MR: I think most people still are especially fond of acts that know how to write good songs.

SJ: I appreciate that. That's something that we try to do. And how about this? We actually play our instruments on the records too.

MR: No way.

SJ: (laughs)

MR: I don't care. I grew up on The Partridge Family.

SJ: (laughs) Touché.

MR: Let's move on to another song on your record, "Acetate." Would you tell me what the heck's going on in that song?

SJ: What is going on with that? I don't know. It was kind of like this sort of Pixies-esque chord progression I came up with, and it ended up sounding kind of like American Hi-Fi channeling Superdrag, which is something I always try to do. Hi-Fi is at our best when we're trying to channel Oasis, The Foo Fighters, and Superdrag, in my opinion.

MR: Still, you have your own sound.

SJ: Okay, I'm glad to hear you say that.

MR: Over the years, there have been a lot of acts that have thrown in the towel because they can't compete with the level of bogus that's going on in radioland right now. But, on the other hand, you have a lot of credible acts. And there are standard-bearers like -- okay, I'll say it -- John Mayer.

SJ: Oh, I love John Mayer.

MR: His music is always good, songwriting always dependable, and his Rolling Stone rant on masturbation is required reading.

SJ: I agree. I'm a big fan of Mayer for a lot of reasons. I think his music is great, he's a great guitar player, I really like his lyrics, he's a great lyricist, and I think he's really smart. I've hung out with him a couple of times, and he's a really nice guy. He's charming, and I have not seen the, whatever you call it, the self-proclaimed douchebaggery myself. But I'm a big Mayer fan. I'm backing him one hundred percent.

MR: I remember him winning the Grammy for best new artist and James Taylor giving the award to him.

SJ: The passing of the torch action there?

MR: Exactly. In my opinion, there are a lot more artists worthy of the torch such as Jason Mraz.

SJ: You know what? I think Jason Mraz is cool. I don't know that much about him, I don't listen to his records, but he seems like a good guy, and he knows how to write a good song. So, I'm backing him.

MR: I got to interview him too, talented guy.

SJ: He seems like it, you know?

MR: Yeah, and there's... no, lets get back to American Hi-Fi.

SJ: Hey listen, I'd much rather talk about other people. Let me tell you, I'm happy to talk about other people. I'm always a little uncomfortable talking about myself.

MR: (laughs) Then let's just talk about some of your singles. I guess your breakthrough was "Flavor Of The Weak."

SJ: Yep. That was the one, for sure. That's our song. It's funny, these days, when people find out you're in a band they say, "Oh, what's your song?" Well, that's our song, "Flavor Of The Weak," for sure.

MR: But American Hi-Fi goes beyond that. You've had four albums, right?

SJ: We have. And, by the way, I'm happy to have a song. At least we have one, you know? I'm happy about that.

MR: You've also had "Another Perfect Day."

SJ: Yeah, that had some play.

MR: And also "The Rescue" from the Sound Of Superman collection.

SJ: Nobody knows about that, Mike.

MR: I'm just sayin'.

SJ: That might as well have come out as like a Japanese B-side, vinyl only (laughs). It's a shame, actually, because I really like that song.

MR: How are you supporting your new album? A tour maybe?

SJ: You know, we're talking to some people right now about maybe doing some stuff. We're kind of just gauging demand. We don't really even know if anybody cares about American Hi-Fi and wants to come see us at this point. It's been so long since we've done anything, our last tour was in '05. We've played a couple of shows since then, but otherwise, we really haven't done anything. So, we're going to be smart about it and kind of do what makes sense. If there's a demand, if there's some town out there that wants us to play, we'll show up. That's kind of how we've always been.

MR: Since you're a drummer, how do you contain yourself? How are you not the drummer for American Hi-Fi?

SJ: Brian Nolan is the drummer for Hi-Fi. I play occasionally. When Brian is not available I'll still get back there.

MR: You were in Letters To Cleo, so, I've got to ask you a very important question. Do you know Razor & Tie's David Richman?

SJ: I know Dave.

MR: Yes, I meant to say Dave Richman, drummer extraordinaire. He also played with Letters To Cleo.

SJ: Did he? I didn't know.

MR: I thought you possibly replaced him since there have been lineup changes.

SJ: There have. When I originally left the band, a guy named Tom Polce replaced me for a little while, and then I went off and was playing with Veruca Salt. I actually came back to Cleo and filled-in, and I continue to do so over the years. We played a few shows in the last few years with the original lineup, and it's been an absolute blast.

MR: I love hearing stories like that. I used to live out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I recently sang the national anthem at a Red Sox/Blue Jays game, which of course, means I can never go back to New York.

SJ: I've got a Red Sox hat on right now, as we speak. Wow, were you scared?

MR: Nah, I've sung for minor league teams. But it was really intense because here I am singing at this major league baseball game, and I haven't done that before, only minor league games. It was awesome for me and, especially, my dad who saw it on YouTube.

SJ: Oh man, there is no way I would ever do that because I was sort of briefly asked at one point. Because we have a lot of Red Sox connections, someone said, "Hey, would you feel like doing that at Fenway?" And we've been really fortunate with Hi-Fi in that they play the intro to "The Art Of Losing" to kind of pump up the crowd at almost every game. Anyway, a friend of mine that works in the organization has asked me if I wanted him to try to get me a shot at singing the national anthem at a game. I said, "Hell no," because -- no names will be mentioned -- but I saw a guy who I'm sure you know singing the national anthem at a game one time, and he messed up the lyrics. So, he messed up, and there was this sort of din of the crowd going, "Oooh." And the poor guy, you could just see his face went purple from all the blood rushing to his head. Then he tried for one of the high notes, and his voice cracked because he was so nervous from having already screwed-up. That was just awful, and I'm cringing just thinking about it.

MR: But that would not be the story for Stacy Jones.

SJ: Kudos to you for being brave enough to get up there and do that because I would not have been able to.

MR: Dude, you'd be fine. And you know, I had to learn the Canadian national anthem, which I knew no lyric and no melody of before I got the gig. I know you can do this.

SJ: Is that "Oh, Canada?"

MR: Yes, it's "Oh, Canada."

SJ: That's all I know (sings), "Oh, Canada. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo." I don't think the Maple Leafs will be asking me to come up there to sing any time soon.

MR: We'll work on that. By the way, what's with your new album's title being Fight The Frequency? A coup against the airwaves or just trying to put me out of work?

SJ: The deal with Fight The Frequency is it's kind of like a self-empowerment song. Kind of saying, "Look, we're going to do this our own way here." So, one of the reasons that that song became the title track is that we feel like that song really encapsulates everything that American Hi-Fi does in one song; it kind of has all the elements of the band. That's why it was the title track, and that's the little story about that.

Tracks:
1. Fight The Frequency
2. This Is A Low
3. Where Love Is A Lie
4. Acetate
5. Lost
6. Keep It Like A Secret
7. Frat Clump
8. Lookout For Hope
9. A Taste For Crime
10. Stargazer
11. Bullet
12. Tiny Spark

(transcribed by Ryan Gaffney)

A Conversation With Director/Choreographer Jon Chu

Mike Ragogna: Beyond the Step Up movies, you've been working on webisodes for Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. Can you go into what those are?

Jon Chu: Yeah, we've met so many amazing dancers over the years since Step Up 2. Underground dancers that hadn't really been seen -- what they do is so incredible that it reminded me of super heroes, of things that human bodies just aren't supposed to be doing. So, we were writing all these stories, and we started to shoot them as these origin stories of the dancers and how they discovered their super powers.

MR: How are they shot?

JC: It's all shot in super-high quality. It's like a super hero movie, but with dance. And there are no special effects. Everything they do is what they really do. It's on Hulu, and it's a really fun, crazy adventure.

MR: What inspired this?

JC: I think it was the dancers themselves. I think it was seeing these amazing heroes. I grew up with heroes like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and even Michael Jackson, and when I watched them dance they made me believe in magic. For some reason, the dance hero has somewhat disappeared. It's all gone to sports heroes. But the reality is that they haven't disappeared. They're actually here, and especially with the internet and YouTube, they're growing, and dance is changing at an incredible rate. These heroes, I feel like, need to be seen because they can inspire a lot of kids, a lot of adults, and we're here to show them off. It's kind of like a Michael Jackson video every week that we show online, except all the little stories connect. These little, short films are like five to ten minutes long.

MR: How many of these LXD, super hero, dancing webisodes will there be?

JC: We have three seasons planned right now, and each season has about ten episodes. So, we're six or seven episodes into this season with three or four more to go. Then we have another ten set to come out a few weeks after that, and another ten after that. So, we have a lot. We're ready to tell the story. Each one builds on the adventure, and you can jump in at any time.

MR: When do you air them?

JC: They come out every Wednesday, all summer long. We have about six episodes that are out, and there are four more episodes this season. Each one, like I said, is like a short film with a different genre for each one as well. It's on hulu.com/the-lxd but usually, if you go on hulu.com on Wednesdays, we're on the front page right there.

MR: How's the response been so far?

JC: The response has been amazing. The comments and stuff have been crazy...people are arguing, and it's been really fun! What's fun is that we're going to a new audience that isn't necessarily dancers. They are people who watch Hulu just to watch Hulu. So, you get a really wide range of people, and I think the debate is really good about how you can use dance in storytelling. We call ourselves dance adventurers, not a dance crew, because we're trying to experiment with dance. Our whole purpose is to be a laboratory, to figure out how we can integrate dance and storytelling in a more organic way than has been done before. It's not a music video, it's not a dance movie, but it's sort of a hybrid. We're trying to find that line where it works best, and the more we play with it, the more people get active in it. They either love it or they hate it. It's a really great conversation to have online.

MR: Are there any dancers that you have a desire to mentor further because you see their potential for greatness?

JC: Yeah, I mean they're all so unique from each other. They don't usually get hired to do choreography jobs because they just don't blend in with everybody else, which is why we hire them. They're so unique and fun to watch. People like Mad Chad. We have a robot guy who we call Specimen in our series, and we had this episode called "Robot Love Story" which was film noir. Since he was a robot guy, we played him as sort of a Frankenstein robot remembering his past life, and his past loves. As crazy as "the robot" seems -- I mean you see it at every wedding or Bar Mitzvah -- this guy is like the master of it. It's compelling, and it's really amazingly human in a weird way. People are drawn to him, and people like that, I think, are really, really interesting. We work with him a lot, and we also work with Harry Shum, Jr. from Glee who looks like he has no bones. So, we tell the story of the kid with no bones in our series, and he's just magnetic as well. He's really old-school style. He can do all different styles, and he plays it like Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly; he has a magic about him that's really cool. So, those guys, in particular, have a magnetism about them that we like to play with because our audience is drawn to them.

MR: Who's the "we" when you say, "We hire them"? Is that your company?

JC: Yes. LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) has a bunch of choreographers -- actually Harry Shum, Jr. is one of our choreographers, and Christopher Scott is another. So, we kind of figure it all out, and decide on the dancers and the music and stuff like that. We're kind of the brain trust. We have multiple directors too -- I don't direct every single episode, so we've got some other directors that we've brought on board that are amazing, as well. And every one of them we've put to the test. We say, "These have to push creativity, push your storytelling skills. This has to do stuff different than other things." This isn't a movie, and it isn't a TV show. And yes, it is online, but it's not just a simple web series. We're trying to do something really, really special. We're trying to develop a new language of dance that people all around the U.S. can get used to and feel that, hopefully, takes dance to the next step.

MR: What music are you using?

JC: We're using a lot of score, actually. We have a great composer, Nathan Lanier. Usually, what we do is develop the ideas of the dances, and then he'll come in and see the story, read the script, and then he'll start to write a full score. Sometimes, we'll also find popular music from our friends. It's always hard to clear music for this because we don't have a huge budget for this show, but we always try to get music from our friends, and things that really inspire us. For the most part, though, it's actually an original score.

MR: Let's catch our readers up on your life and career before LXD. You're a graduate of University of Southern California's Cinema Television School, right?

JC: Uh huh.

MR: And you won the Princess Grace award, the Dore Schary award presented by the anti-defamation league, the Jack Nicholson direction award, and you also were recognized as an honoree for the IFP/West program Project: Involve. How did it feel about being an award-winning director and screenwriter right out of the box?

JC: It was fun. In school, I did a bunch of short films, and in each one I was playing with a lot of different ideas. When you're in college you have a lot of anxiety, and a lot of things that you're going through. So, I really plugged those things into my short films. I didn't know what would happen, but it was fun because people started to respond to them when I would make them and send them out to film festivals and what-not. So, during my last couple of years at USC, I got a lot of attention because of those things. I think it showed that you can actually make an impact with some of your stuff. Even though my shorts were five or ten minutes long, they actually had a larger impact than that. And, that's been really good for LXD now because that's right around the length of our shorts, and short storytelling is very different from feature film storytelling.

MR: Your student short When The Kids Are Away secured your William Morris Agency deal, right?

JC: Yeah, it did. That's the short that was kind of my calling card into the business. It was my last film at USC, and I showed a rough cut to an agent at William Morris and they signed me right there. I wasn't even out of school yet. Then they sent it to Stephen Spielberg, and he saw it and called me up. So, we met a bunch of times, and he sort of became my mentor over the years. He was a really big help in the very beginning, and it's all because of this little short film I did at USC, which was a musical about the secret lives of mothers. What do they do when the kids are at school? Sing and dance, of course!

MR: Speaking of singing and dancing, you were going to direct a Bye Bye Birdie remake until the plug was pulled.

JC: Yeah. So, as soon as all of that happened in the beginning, I got signed to do the remake of Bye Bye Birdie, and we worked with Tina Fey who wrote our draft. We worked on it for about two years, and it was an eighty million dollar musical for Sony with me directing at twenty-three years old at the time. Then, right at the last second, they pulled the plug. I think they got a little bit spooked by the idea. The musical hadn't been proven yet. Chicago had come out, but there wasn't any fun crazy musical. Hairspray hadn't come out yet, and it was still really uncharted territory.

MR: You're slated to direct an updated, sort of 2.0 version of The Great Gatsby, right?

JC: Yeah, that's also at Sony. We set that up a little bit ago. There are a couple of rights issues we're dealing with right now, so it may be a while, but that's one of my favorite books. It's so dense that it was never really meant to be a movie. So, I always hesitated, but the script that was written really encapsulated everything that I love about that book. It was young, it was contemporary, and I really wanted to express that through this movie. But we're dealing with some rights issues right now, so who knows?

MR: Off the topic of film for just a moment, how does it feel to be the son of Lawrence Chu, famous chef?

JC: (laughs) It's great. I get a lot of great food when I go home. I grew up in Palo Alto, and that restaurant has been there for forty years. It's an establishment, I basically grew up in that restaurant. My dad worked super-hard, and he always told us kids -- I'm the youngest of five kids -- that we couldn't work at the restaurant. He always said that America is the greatest place in the world and that you can do anything you want as long as you're passionate about it; you love what you do, you work really hard. He said he didn't want us to work at the restaurant because he didn't want us to get used to fast cash. He wanted us to do everything that he couldn't do growing up. So, my mom and my dad put us in dance classes and in music classes -- I took drum, saxophone, violin, piano, and guitar. We traveled, we saw shows every weekend between musical season, opera season, and ballet season. So, they really engulfed us in the arts, and that's how I grew up. I ate well, and I played well.

MR: Beautiful. What is your advice for up-and-coming directors, screenwriters, and cinematographers?

JC: I had a great piece of advice said to me a long time ago. I used to be one of those kids in film school who would always raise their hand and ask, "How do you become a director?" to the different directors that came in, and one of the best answers I ever got was, "You are what you do every day." So, if you are a writer, then write every day, and you are a writer. If you are a director, then direct every day.

No one's ever going to give you that label, and no one's going to give you a gold star that tells you, "You are officially, now, a director." I think that really changed my perspective on what I am because whether I was making money making feature films, doing web series', just doing films for myself or doing wedding videos, I knew I would always be making movies. And I think that's a really important mentality to go in with, especially in a crazy town like Hollywood. It's been a fun ride so far, and I know, in the future, no matter what happens, I'll continue to make these things, and I just hope people will continue to watch.

(transcribed by Ryan Gaffney)

PRESS RELEASES:

Friends of Francis Thicke Host National Online Music Video Contest

Friends of Francis Thicke are pleased to announce the HAPPY COW MUSIC VIDEO CONTEST. Individuals aged 18 and over are invited to submit a music video for the song, "Happy Cow," written and performed by musician Arthur Lee Land for a chance to win cash prizes and have their work viewed by a celebrity judge panel.

Arthur Lee Land was inspired to write the song after meeting Francis Thicke and visiting his dairy farm, Radiance Dairy. Thicke, (pronounced "ticky") a sustainable dairy farmer with a Ph.D and former USDA Soil Science Program Leader, is campaigning against a candidate backed by corporate agribusiness for the position as Iowa's next Secretary of Agriculture.

The Happy Cow Music Video Contest encourages participants from across the country to get creative and spread the word that what happens in Iowa will impact the nation, by producing a music video in support of Thicke's campaign promoting clean and healthy food systems, sustainable energy and more profits for family farmers.

A celebrity judge panel, including filmmaker David Lynch, bestselling author Michael Pollan, actor Stephen Collins, and King Corn filmmaker Aaron Woolf, will select a best overall winner and a second place winner. The overall winner will receive $1500, second place will win $700, and the People's Choice award will win $300. Entries will be judged on creativity, imagination and inspiration, effectiveness of communication in telling story, and visual and graphic innovation.

"I feel like the issue of clean food and sustainable agriculture is reaching critical mass. From my perspective, this IS a national election. When I heard that the people who typically vote for this office are over 55 I knew we needed to find ways to reach younger people in Iowa who care about their food and systems that produce it."

"The song pretty much wrote itself after I started to think about what the cows would be asking humans: What's it gonna take...? Our intention is for this video contest to be a fun, creative way to bring attention to Francis and the issues at hand. We are fortunate to have Tim Hawthorne, Founder and CEO of Hawthorne Direct sponsor the $2500 prize money as well as our celebrity judges who have volunteered their support."

Entries are due by September 22, 2010, midnight CST. To listen and download the "Happy Cow" Song, watch contest videos and view full contest guidelines visit: www.friendsoffrancisthicke.com.

ERIC CLAPTON TO RELEASE 19th SOLO ALBUM "CLAPTON" ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

Guitar icon and three time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Eric Clapton announced today that he will release his 19th solo studio album on September 28, 2010 simply titled CLAPTON.

Co-produced by guitarist and long-time collaborator Doyle Bramhall II, the CD features an all star cast of musical collaborations started with the legendary JJ Cale, drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Willie Weeks, and keyboardist Walt Richmond--and the sessions later added guests including Steve Winwood, Wynton Marsalis, Sheryl Crow, Allen Toussaint, and Derek Trucks.
Clapton created a collection that touches on everything from century-old traditional brass bands to little-known country blues to brand-new originals. The result is both relaxed and revelatory, and unlike anything the guitarist has done in his legendary career.

"This album wasn't what it was intended to be at all," says Eric Clapton. "It's actually better than it was meant to be because, in a way, I just let it happen. It's an eclectic collection of songs that weren't really on the map--and I like it so much because if it's a surprise to the fans, that's only because it's a surprise to me, as well."

For more on Eric Clapton and the release of Clapton please visit www.ericclapton.com

Tracks:
1 Travelin' Alone
2 Rocking Chair
3 River Runs Deep
4 Judgement Day
5 How Deep Is The Ocean
6 My Very Good Friend The Milkman
7 Can't Hold Out Much Longer
8 That's No Way To Get Along
9 Everything Will Be Alright
10 Diamonds Made From Rain*
11 When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful
12 Hard Times Blues
13 Run Back To Your Side
14 Autumn Leaves

ICONIC ROCK GUITARIST SLASH DEBUTS NEW MUSIC VIDEO FOR HIS CURRENT SINGLE "BACK FROM CALI" FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY

THE SINGLE IS CURRENTLY CLIMBING THE ACTIVE ROCK CHARTS

Myles Kennedy Will Hit The Road With Slash Again For The "We're All Gonna Die" U.S. Tour Following Major Sold-Out European Festival Shows

Legendary guitarist SLASH is set to premiere his latest music video for "Back From Cali," the current single featuring Myles Kennedy, from the guitarist's self-titled debut on Wednesday August 11, 2010. The song is currently heating up the Active Rock charts with a debut in the Top 30.

Directed by noted live concert director Daniel E. Catullo III, this video showcases a compilation of live footage from the guitarist's recent European Festival tour, which showcased Kennedy as the tour vocalist, as well as behind the scenes footage that truly captures the energy that's on stage at a Slash show. The pair made stops at some of Europe's largest outdoor festivals including the Download Festival and Rock-Am Ring, both which are featured in the video.

Next up, Slash will embark upon a tour of North America, treating audiences to a career-spanning Slash set list of songs from the new album, along with Slash classics from Guns N Roses like "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Paradise City" and numerous Velvet Revolver, and Slash's Snakepit favorites. Slash's U.S. dates will again feature vocalist Myles Kennedy after receiving strong critical praise on the European run. The US tour kicks off on August 28th in Los Angeles at the legendary Sunset Strip Music Festival, where Slash will be joined on stage by Fergie.